daily musings on what people truly and truly don't care about.

~32~ i don’t care about endangered species

This is one of the first I-don’t-cares ever cited to me, by my friend Shaina, who mentioned it at a bar earlier in the year but reminded me of it at a dinner party in her new apartment a few weeks ago.

Shaina: “I still don’t care about endangered species.”

Me: “Polar bears?”

S: “Nope.”

<pause>

S: Well, I guess I care about the Bald Eagle going extinct. You know, because that’s like, America.”

I’ve thought about this for a while since that dinner party, and realized something rather unfortunate: even though I am a pro-active fan of the environment, I don’t care as much about this as I think I should. If I cared, I would probably be doing something about it, no?

A caveat: I did work on a project on the Future of Fish last summer and I really cared about wild fish going extinct then. But this speaks to the larger question of whether we humans truly have the capacity to care about [and act on the] things that don’t directly affect our health, the people we love, or our immediate environment.

Look, I mean, the polar bear pups are awful cute, and so are the tropical birds, and the odd, slothy, prehistoric mammals on the Travel and Discovery Channels, but it’s hard to get fired up about saving animals when there are people who need help. I don’t consider this some weird, human superiority thing, but frankly, there are things closer to home that I care about.

What about you? What we’re talking about here are awesome jaguars and lovable turtles and beautiful corals…the WORKS. Do you care about endangered species?

6 Responses

I feel like this is one of those ones you can’t admit to, even if it’s true. But I also think “not not caring” is not the same as “caring.” Like, I would never say “i don’t care about endangered species,” but then I would also never really go too far out of my way to do anything to help them when there are other causes I care more about, as you say. Hypocrisy? Realism?

I agree with Meredith – there has to be something inbetween not caring and actually taking actions to protect endangered species.

For me, the species thing isn’t really separable from the whole environment thing. I would never say “I don’t care about rivers being dirty and polluted”, but I’m not trying to do something about the rivers in particular. Same with animals, no? They’re dying because we’re pouring toxic waste and building monstruos factories on them and their habitats?

I care about the environment – and I’m not completely passive when it comes to generally acting on that care. I wouldn’t shrug my shoulders at a dying animal (what kind of person would??). But have I ever made a proactive, targeted effort to save, say, an eagle or a dolphin? No.

In general, I don’t think that anyone has made a stong case to me about why I should care about endangered species – I mean, I understand stuff like if you get rid of all the spiders, then you are infested with flies, and stuff like that – but If all polar bears died, would it make an ounce of difference to me? No, I don’t think so. Get on it, activists – make me care, because right now, showing me pictures of majestic creatures is not making me get in the game. Show me one picture of a crying child, and I will donate to you – way to go Sally Struthers.

Hmm…this is a tough one. I’m probably going to sound really dumb admitting this, but I really only care if the endangered species looks cute or cuddly. Seriously, if there was an ugly looking frog or bat going extinct, I don’t give a $hit.

Um… the reason why you should care isn’t ONLY because of the species itself, as is implied by whoever said they only cared if the species is ‘cute and cuddly’. It’s the fact that it’s a domino effect. No one is asking you whether you like the animal or not, rather this matters simply because it has important consequences. One species’s disappearance will invariably affect all other species in an ecosystem, which will come back to bite us in the butt too – we are at the top of the chain.

For example, bats and bees pollinate most of the fruits we eat. If they died, not only would the entire food chain get messed up but we ourselves would not have much to eat.

The times the effects take many years to become noticeable, sometimes they don’t and are quite indirect, but they all affect the harmony in the environment.